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June, 1923 lHE AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER Seven
Combined abilities of sculptor and
cinematoqrapher with perspective of
cartoonist required to animate clau
What has proved to be one of the most popular short
subjects in motion ji'cturea is "animated clay," which was
introduced to films by Willie Hopkins, who is noted as an
artist and a sculptor and who at present Is producing a
series of travel pictures whose subject matter is of a
literary nature.
The story as to how Hopkins animates clay is as novel
as the appearance of animated clay itself on the screen.
The antmaton of clay brings together one of the oldest
of arts and one of the newest of arts for the entertainment
of contemporary audiences. The arts, 'of course, are those
of sculpture and of motion pictures.
Generally speaking, the filming or' the "animating" 'of
the clay subjects follows the same photographic method as
is used in the making of animated cartcons-c-that is, stop
motion is employed. It is in the details that the tllming
of the animated clay material differs from other forms of
animated work.
Ability in Sculpture Essential
The requisite which precedes photographic thoroughness
is that he who prepares the clay subjects must be a
sculptor or modeler of first magnitude. Moreover, he must
not only possess the ability of the artist, but he must have
at his command the perception of the newspaper cartoon 'st
in selecting 'topics that are of a current or popular interest
and, as euch, reasonably sure to interest the public.
To properly shoot the clay studies requires virtually as
much attention to lighting and similar details as is de-manded
in the filming of a dramet'c production. There are
modeling conditions to be reckoned with that ordinarily
do not enter into the calculations of making the animated
cartoon. Lighting and shooting arrangements must be
made to match a clay that is not too white or too dark-in
his experience Hopk'ns has learned that a clean light-colored
clay found in Placer county, California, best lends
itself to animated work. This, a form of pottery clay, does
not produce hilation to any marked degree and hence does
not work against effective ltghtlna. Clay that works up
"slck" cannot be used for this reason.
Clay that is too fresh or wet cannot be used, as it does
not, when worked into figures, stand up long enough to
permtt filming, but sinks, slides and falls. Hopkins has
found <that clay that has been allowed to stand for a time
before modeling gives the most satisfactory results.
The animation of the clay being produced by stop mo-tion,
the process is to model the fleure "Of figures of the
subject at hand up to a certain position and then to film
the initial position. The figure is then modeled up to its
second posft'on, which is likewise filmed, while the camera
is not ground again until the third position is modeled and
ready tor filming. This procedure of modeling position
after poettton, and of the filming of each position sep-arately,
is repeated until the effect of act'on is given the
figure or figures.
Set Number of Frames
The filming 'Of the various positions requires attention'
to minute details. Through long experience Hopkins dis-covered
that the common movements of man or animal
settle themselves into fixed proportions-thus the move-ment
of the arm from the side to shoulder height re-quires
four modeling movements of two frames each,
wh'Ie the wink of an eye calls for six Iramee.
The working secret of animated clay is to use broad
sweeping strokes in modeling like the strokes of the
painter. When the effectiveness 'of one stroke has spent
itself, the next stroke in the clay is not begun where the
previous one halted, but the starting point of 'the first
stroke is likewise employed as the starting point of the
second. Observance of th'a principle, which may not ap-pear
important on the face of itself, will be conducive to
a smooth-moving appearance on the screen and will not
result in a jumpy exhibition which might be attributed
to improper photography.
Best Form of Light
Daylight blue, according to Hopkins, who is known as
an artist as well as a sculptor, having won the famous
Allan Fraser art scholarship which is open to world com-petition
and through which he attended the Royal Art
School at Kensington in England and the leading schools
on continental Europe, proves best for lighting the clay
figures; it gives almost every degree of the spectrum
when thrown on the clay subjects.
Shadows Are Shaped
Shadows are created in <the process of modeling itself.
If a heavy shadow IS desired, the clay is shaped to give
such, or vice versa. The ligh t'ng of course is important
and must be made to conform with the desired shadows,
whereas in ordinary modeling the figure is created to con-form
with the lights and the shades of the spot where it
will stand, if the spot is known in advance, such as the
interior of a mansion or the like.
Dissolves Are Modeled
Dtsaolv'ng in animated clay work is done by means of
modeling and not through a photographic medium. In
other words. Hopkins models his figure from one position
or expreaslon into another instead of dissolving photo-graphically.
Hopkins finds that the aid of an expert cinematographer
to film his works results in the most attractive subjects.
When he began clay an-matton experiments, Hopkins,
working in a studio well lighted with davltgbt in Dallas,
Texas, where he conceived the idea while following his
calling as artist and sculptor, used a primitive motion pte-ture
camera and did all the shoot'ng himself. When his
expectations began to materialize in the project. he secured
'1. mrrt or e ttnchment for his camera and operated it by foot.
which meant that he did not have to attempt to crank
while his hands were full of clay. But the success of his
undertaking in bringing· him a cinematographer to work
with him moved the biggest boon of all. as it eliminated
days of tiresome steps from camera to clay and from clay
to camera.
Hopkins' subjects 'of clay animation range from a
crawling worm to a speeding locomotive. His experience
is that the public is most interested in humorous changes
of expressions on human faces.
On one occasion Hopkins stood in a cage w'th five lions
at Universal City, California. and modeled. for anima-tions,
the head of the Han, "Bobby," while a film was taken
of the entire proceedings. The film was: later released in
the Universal Dews weekly. Three companies. Universal,
Paramount and Pathe. have released Hopkins' clay sub-jects.
The account of his efforts in New York to ga'n
recognition for the new form of short subject material is
a story in itself.
The clay background for titles was introduced to motion
picture production by Hopkins. He a-lso achieved suc-cessful
results in lettering on clay backgrounds, using
water-color white for the letters proper and shading w'tb
lampblack.

June, 1923 lHE AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER Seven
Combined abilities of sculptor and
cinematoqrapher with perspective of
cartoonist required to animate clau
What has proved to be one of the most popular short
subjects in motion ji'cturea is "animated clay" which was
introduced to films by Willie Hopkins, who is noted as an
artist and a sculptor and who at present Is producing a
series of travel pictures whose subject matter is of a
literary nature.
The story as to how Hopkins animates clay is as novel
as the appearance of animated clay itself on the screen.
The antmaton of clay brings together one of the oldest
of arts and one of the newest of arts for the entertainment
of contemporary audiences. The arts, 'of course, are those
of sculpture and of motion pictures.
Generally speaking, the filming or' the "animating" 'of
the clay subjects follows the same photographic method as
is used in the making of animated cartcons-c-that is, stop
motion is employed. It is in the details that the tllming
of the animated clay material differs from other forms of
animated work.
Ability in Sculpture Essential
The requisite which precedes photographic thoroughness
is that he who prepares the clay subjects must be a
sculptor or modeler of first magnitude. Moreover, he must
not only possess the ability of the artist, but he must have
at his command the perception of the newspaper cartoon 'st
in selecting 'topics that are of a current or popular interest
and, as euch, reasonably sure to interest the public.
To properly shoot the clay studies requires virtually as
much attention to lighting and similar details as is de-manded
in the filming of a dramet'c production. There are
modeling conditions to be reckoned with that ordinarily
do not enter into the calculations of making the animated
cartoon. Lighting and shooting arrangements must be
made to match a clay that is not too white or too dark-in
his experience Hopk'ns has learned that a clean light-colored
clay found in Placer county, California, best lends
itself to animated work. This, a form of pottery clay, does
not produce hilation to any marked degree and hence does
not work against effective ltghtlna. Clay that works up
"slck" cannot be used for this reason.
Clay that is too fresh or wet cannot be used, as it does
not, when worked into figures, stand up long enough to
permtt filming, but sinks, slides and falls. Hopkins has
found